Romans 8:35-39

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written: 'For Your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered' [Psalm 44:22]. No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons [or heavenly rulers], neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Again Paul offers a rhetorical question, “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?” And this time, it includes a relational illustration. Not only are the elect judicially certain of God’s unchanging love, but they are relationally certain of it as well. You might hear from some people that God is relational, like a father, and that excludes Him from being impersonal, like a judge. They’ll say God is more loving than He is just. Yet Paul paints both pictures of God, the father and the judge, side-by-side. They both describe God, and we can’t take one without the other. And of course this rhetorical question, like the others, answers a point that Paul already made.

What does sin do, according to Paul? Sin separates us from God. So Paul has worked in this letter to the Romans to show how God has dealt with sin through Christ, and make the point that, if sin has been dealt with in Jesus Christ, and if we’re united to Christ, then sin itself can no longer separate us from God’s love. Neither can anything or anyone else. This is supremely seen in Jesus’ cry of separation from the cross. Matthew 27:46 “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” Paul is reminding us that since Jesus has experienced separation on our behalf, we in union with Christ will never experience that separation from God. We will never experience that separation, because He endured separation and secured salvation for us.

First, the emphasis here is on Christ’s love for us, God’s love for us, not on our love for Christ or God. If our assurance or security depended on the consistency and the quality of our love to Christ, none of us would ever be assured. Paul is saying that God’s love for us actually secures our assurance of salvation and our servitude. And then, having pointed us to the love of God, because our security resides not in circumstances, but in something that flows eternally from the heart of God towards His people, Paul is able to say that no circumstance can interrupt, or defeat, or overthrow that love. No earthly circumstance can separate us from the love of Christ, because the certainty of that love doesn’t depend on circumstances or on our love. It depends upon the unchangeableness of God’s saving love.

Second, many Christians will say, “God has really helped me to endure some of the most difficult trials of life,” or, “Those trials made me stronger, going through that hard thing made me stronger.” And nothing is wrong with those statements, unless they think that the trials actually produced the grace. And Paul says, “I’m saying more than that. I’m saying that you are more than conquerors in all these things.” Now that’s an amazing statement. But what does it mean? “More than conquerors” in trouble, hardship, persecution, famine, nakedness, danger, and sword doesn’t seem like much to us, because, let’s face it, we haven’t experienced many or much of those things. We certainly haven’t experienced famine, nakedness, danger, or sword…yet. Perhaps these things are coming, even in the Western world. Consider that the 20th century has seen more Christian martyrs, folks killed for their faith, than the previous 19 centuries combined. That’s astounding! And we might not physically be among them, but they are among us. And we suffer as a Body. And when believers are persecuted, it signifies that we are joining in the fellowship of His sufferings. It’s a sign of our union with Christ, and Paul understood this intensely and experientially. Believers share in and are united with Christ in His sufferings, not only in His benefits. And so suffering persecution is a function with union with Christ. But how are we “more than conquerors”?

It’s not that you just barely get by, by the skin of your teeth. You’re a hyper-conqueror. And it’s not just in the good things. It’s in all the bad things, all the adversities you could list right now. In all things, God has made you to be more than conquerors. But He hasn’t done it through those things; He’s done it through the love of Christ. Through Christ’s love as exercised and exhibited in the cross, you are more than conquerors. Paul is saying that in those experiences we are made more than conquerors—not in spite of those experiences, but in them. Precisely because God decreed that trial X should happen, God made you to conquer in an extraordinary way. And furthermore, it wasn’t the trial itself that produced the character in you. It was the grace of God working in the trial. It was “through Him Who loved us.”

Jesus said, “In this world, you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” Christ was more than a conqueror, and in Him, united to Him, we are as well. There’s the union with Christ again. Consider 2 Corinthians 11; Paul defends himself to his audience, describing himself as weak and boasting in God. When we think of Paul, we should think of a weak little man. And then we should think of what God in His might and power has done in and through and by weak little Paul. And then we see that God’s power is perfected in weakness, through union with Christ, through God’s work in His people.

Finally, notice that Paul has explained that no earthly thing or person can separate us from the love of Christ. Now he broadens the picture. Nothing in all of creation, including supernatural beings, can separate us from God’s love in Christ. Paul offers great encouragement as Romans 8 closes. He lists ten things that cannot stand in the way. And these ten things include everything that we can think of. In fact, nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ.

How then are some separated from God for eternity in hell? Well, God’s wrath remained on them. It was never removed by Christ. They were never part of the “us.” They were never counted among the elect. Jesus will say to them, “Depart from Me. I never knew you.” They were never united to Christ. And this doesn’t sound very humble of “us” to say such things. It sounds boastful, arrogant, snobbish, as if we were better or more deserving that those who are not included. It seems unfair that God would include some and not others. How can God send Christ to pay the punishment price of sin for some and not others? And given Paul’s audience, we might expect Paul to go into an explanation of how Jews relate to Gentiles in this issue of election and how God chooses some and not others. Picture his audience asking, "What about Israel?" And wouldn’t you know it? That’s exactly what Paul will do, in chapters 9-11. He'll answer the question, "What about Israel?" We'll begin to look at that next time.